Support social and humanitarian projects and get to know our culture in Poptún, Guatemala

  • Favourited 222 times
  • Last activity: 28 Mar 2024

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    Hey there! We are Maria, Keith and Alan (our son) and we are looking for motivated volunteers who want to support us with our social and humanitarian projects in Poptún. We are a missionary organization with a refuge for missionaries from around the world with 19 years of work experience in Guatemala.

    We live here in Poptun for many years now and have done projects like supporting or working with local hospitals, elderly homes, children homes, schools, helping low-income communities with celebrations such as weddings, baptisms, christian concerts.

    Honestly, there is a lot to do and always something going on. Scroll down and check out what help we need at the moment, maybe you want to help in some areas. If you have ideas on your own, for example organizing local events or a rally for the children, we can sure talk about that as well!

    Please be aware of the fact that we probably have different kinds of cultures. You are totally welcome to join and explore ours, but please respect our way of living and of course we will do the same.

    We are really looking forward hearing from you!

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Charity Work
    Art Projects
    Language practice
    Help with Eco Projects
    Elderly Companionship
    DIY and building projects
    Farmstay help
    Help around the house
    Hospitality/Tourism
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Living and working with us will give you a great insight on the Guatemalan culture. You will get to know the local people, local medicine (maybe we can prepare some together), plants, animals and of course the good Guatemalan food. 

    You can get a lot of learning opportunities in farming, teaching, organizing, etc. It depends of course in which project you want to support us.
    But in general you will get a lot of life experience and we as well, because we love to communicate and exchange thoughts with travelers from all over the world. For us it is important to learn from each other. 


  • Help

    Help

    As we mentioned before at the moment we have a lot of projects going on:

    1. Ecological projects on animal farms and organic fruit trees 

    ______________________________________________________________
    We have 100 acres of land with animals including chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, cows, sheeps, dogs, more than 500 organic fruit trees like mangos, avocado, pineapple, etc. and plantations of corn, bean, cardamom, coffee and many more.
    
Here is always work to do like cleaning the landscape, feeding the animals and collecting the fruits - we almost live and eat completely from what the farm gives us.

    Please be aware of the fact that it is a typical, guatemalan farm. We have a lot of animals and some of them live in cages. There is also our guardian dog who lives out there at the farm and protects everything.
    We respect animal rights, but as we said before, we live and eat from the farm and also sometimes we have to sell some of our animals or products on the local market.
    We simply ask you to respect our way of life.

    

In this project here you can choose, if you want to stay with us at the main house (about 15 mins away from the farm) or if you want to stay in the farm house. It is a more rustic environment and you can get a motorcycle or car for getting back and forth. There is an outside kitchen, rustic bathroom, bedroom and a hammock outside in the little garden.



    Here you can also get creative and do ecological projects like making soaps, preparing medicine with special plants … here I can show you what to do and how we use plants.

    2. Building central offices for teaching children around the community

    ___________________________________________________________
    Once or twice a week we have kids around from the community and teach them some lessons like stories of the Bible, drawing lessons or we practice languages. 

    We need someone who wants to support us creating central offices in the building that the kids have a normal class room, because at the moment they are learning outside in the garden. 


    You can also just work with the kids, teach them or plan some fun activities which we can maybe organize into a big event for the community at the weekend.

    Here you should be able to communicate with kids in Spanish, because of course they don’t speak English. 


    3. Charity work projects going out to low income communities

    ___________________________________________________________
    Some charity project would be the collecting of donations and giving them to low income communities. For example every year Keith is collecting material donations in Texas like wheelchairs, medical stuff, clothes, toys for kids, furniture, etc. After about 8 months they arrive and we have to get them out of the ship container to the community. 



    Imagine, people were waiting for important stuff for over 8 months and suddenly it’s here … So here we need support in the organization process.

    4. Construction projects such as plumbing and installation of electricity in lodging building

    ___________________________________________________________
    We really need someone who can help Keith with the plumbing and installation of electricity. We just renovated the “living house“ where our rooms and the guestrooms are. We want to install showers in each room and need in general help with the electricity in some other projects.

    Those are the projects we really need help at the moment. You can decide if you want to work in one area or if you want to help here and there. We are pretty open and can talk about everything.

    **

Please, if you contact us, tell us in which project you see yourself or not. And also give us a hint how long you are planning to stay. Of course we prefer volunteers to stay minimum a month, but if you only available for two weeks, it’s also okay. We are sure together we will figure something out.** 


  • Languages

    Languages spoken
    English: Fluent
    Spanish: Fluent

    This host offers a language exchange
    My husband (originally from Texas) and I (originally from Guatemala) are speaking English fluently, I'm (Maria) of course speaking Spanish as well. The rest of the workers are only speaking Spanish and some words English. So if you are looking to improve your Spanish or English the old “learning by doing/speaking“ way, with us it is possible.

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    You can stay with us in the main house, the other local workers live there too. Here we have electricity and wifi. You get a room for yourself or with another volunteer, but maximum is 2 people in one room (depends how many volunteers are here).
    The sharing bathroom with running water is outside at a separate building. Soon we will install internal bathrooms in the sleeping rooms, so everybody has his own.
    The kitchen is also in a separate building and we are have a cook. Mostly she cooks for breakfast and dinner.

    Like mentioned above, you can also decide to stay in the house at the farm. It is more rustic, there is no electricity or wifi and there is an outside kitchen. But the place is awesome and you are in the middle of nature and there is a hammock as well. We can also talk about your transportation, so you will be able to drive to the main house.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    If you are traveling around Guatemala, you find Poptun exactly halfway between Rio Dulce and Flores. So you can easily go and explore those places on your free days. We also know a lot of special places, rivers, mountains and caves to climb in the area and we would love to share that with you. Of course you can also accompany us wherever we go (central markets, etc.), because we want to give you an insight of the daily life in the countryside.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Can host digital nomads

    Can host digital nomads

    We can host digital nomads, because we have wifi at the main house and a lot of space, so you can find a quiet place for your work.

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    We have a big property, so it is no problem to find a parking area. You can live in your campervans too, but you can also decide to stay in the guesthouse.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

  • ...

    Hours expected

    7 hours a day, 5 days a week

Host ref number: 758712452629

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